Midpoint Trade Books has signed an agreement with digital conversion company codeMantra to offer digital distribution services to independent publishers. In a more traditional deal, Sterling Publishing has agreed to distribute White Star Publishers.
In the Midpoint, codeMantra deal, codeMantra will provide digital fulfillment services, conversions services and digital warehousing to independent publishers, while Midpoint will provide publisher support and vendor sales management while also promoting the service to its publisher clients as well as outside publishers. Midpoint CEO Eric Kampmann said about 20 of Midpoint's 270 publishers had already signed up for the service. In signing with codeMantra, Midpoint is the latest distribution company to offer its publishers a digital distribution option. "codeMantra's mandate is to supply publishers with the services and software to make digital publishing and fulfillment less challenging. Midpoint is in the business of forging distribution alliances. The relationship between our two companies could be described as symbiotic," said Walter Walker, director of publishing services for codeMantra.
Sterling has also closed a distribution deal with White Star Publishers, which publishes illustrated non-fiction in the categories of art, fashion, food, music, nature, and photography. The first ten White Star books Sterling will distribute will appear on the publisher's fall 2010 list and include Italy's Great Chefs and Their Secrets and John Lennon: In His Life.
White Star, which was founded in 1984 and is known more formally as Edizioni White Star, is based in Italy and has a catalog of over 600 titles.
